We know what you’re thinking – you’re thinking why would anyone waste perfectly good beer and soda to run a power plant? Rest assured because this beer and soda would only be poured down the drain anyway. A pilot project for the Great White North, this intoxicating project will see the use of waste soda and beer to power a plant in Atlantic Canada, in order to keep its ethanol fuel tanks maintained.

The $500,000 plan is being spearheaded by New Brunswick Community College’s Bio-energy and Bio-products Applied Research and Technology facility in Grand Falls, Canada. The research team will use Milco Industries’ waste soda and beer for the trial. Traditionally the unwanted liquid is deposited in landfills, which can cost the company between $100,000 and $200,000 in disposal costs. However, with the plant’s new ethanol system, this beer and soda will be converted into 250,000 to 500,000 gallons of ethanol yearly. If the pilot project is a success, it is believed that Milco Industries will acquire an even larger-scale ethanol plant for their own internal use.

“What sort of changes can we make to this initial pilot plant that we’re going to put up, to make it so it can operate economically at a small scale,” Kevin Shiell, scientific director for New Brunswick Community College asked. “This may be too small, but maybe a million liter plant we can actually get it so that it is feasible.”

As you all know, ethanol is a much greener fuel than fossil fuels as it burns cleaner, and if made from waste organic products produces zero CO2 emissions.